


A Kid Again

by gracefulally



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-26
Updated: 2006-09-26
Packaged: 2017-10-21 05:59:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/221713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracefulally/pseuds/gracefulally
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gunn catches Knox staring at Fred. Knox tries to recover but fails miserably. Knox and Gunn exchange some awkward conversation before Knox has a moment that solidifies his geek-dom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Kid Again

Everyone knows that there is an unwritten rule that is written in a nonexistent rule book which states that not one person enjoys their job. Well, I can assure that there is at least one man living the exception to that rule and that man is currently examining the finer qualities of his new workplace.

I mean, let's be completely Sinatra with each other here. Who needs busywork when you are in the presence of a goddess like Winifred Burkle?

Granted her name leaves much to be imagined, but I knew in all honesty that it didn’t get much better than sitting in this lab with my chin propped on my hand as I watched that woman squint into a microscope to compare bacterium samples from three separate Xaa’Ouhn demons. That is, it's all fine and dandy until you get _caught_ staring.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled at the sound of someone clearing their throat behind me.

I instinctively clutched the closest thing to my hand, which happened to be a rather fluffy--yes, fluffy--pink pen, to look like I had been working and staring at my boss’s hunched backside. I silently wished Angel’s secretary was a little less of a princess and carried real pens with her. That way when she left them behind they wouldn’t be quite so incriminating to my work ethic.

As I swiveled my chair, I did so with the full intention of nonchalantly turning back to the counter as though I had been legitimately busy. However, there wasn’t a nonchalant bone in my body. So, all I accomplished was clumsily sending a stack of freshly prepared petri dishes crashing to the floor in the mistimed twirl of my torso. Cringing at the sound of my own lack of suave moves and Fred's abashed exclaim over the destruction of her work, I slowly opened my eyes and a little of the color drained in my face when I saw who had caught me staring at my beautiful boss.

“Gunn!” My voice came out a tad higher than I had hoped, likely thanks to my sheer surprise to see the overworked attorney in the lab. Spotting the feathered monstrosity in my hand, I dropped it immediately with a nervous flick. My tone recovered some as I forced myself to smile. “Uh, hi! How can I help you?”

“I brought you an outline of a special order from a client a couple weeks ago and he’s requested an update on your progress,” he replied, completely unfazed.

My expression screwed up in confusion. Outline? Special order? What in the name of Kepler was he talking about?

Then the recognition hit me and I perked up appropriately. “Oh, right! The RAVOS.”

One eye squinted at me incredulously from the other side of the counter as I stood up. “The who?”

“The Real-tine Adimensional Virus Outbreak Simulator,” I explained with a little smile at my own absentmindedness. I couldn’t believe I nearly forgotten that big lug of wires and metal plating.

The RAVOS had been so much fun to design and build. Honestly, I had felt like I was back at home tinkering with the first Atari my father had bought me. Of course, that had never worked correctly after I’d finished improving the power switch by adding a multicolored LED and making it remote-activated when I was ten, but this, this was entirely different. The mechanical and computer devices I fixed and designed here at Wolfram and Hart actually were of use to our clientele and never were just a toy I’d made because I was bored. Well, _most_ of the time they weren’t toys. A man can only busy himself in so many ways when left with an idle mind, but that was beside the point.

Standing, I gestured across the lab to a huge server tower that I had used to build the simulator. “It’s over here. I had to give it some room otherwise the cooling fans would die immediately. The dual-core does produce a lot of heat.”

The resourceful attorney simply followed me with his skeptical gaze and didn’t even try to hide the ignorance in his voice. “You want to repeat that? In English.”

Returning the wayward glance, a clarification rolled off my tongue as I cleared the stack of loose papers from the server tower. Personally, the specificity of the name was explanation enough for me. Then again, I was a scientist and Gunn an attorney. It would be a given that he would hardly know the first thing about scientific testing devices just as I shouldn’t know a writ from an appeal. Well, I didn’t, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

“It’s a highly sophisticated computer-based simulator capable of generating the logistical data of a theoretical outbreak anywhere in the continental U.S. of a Eta level, type six adimensional virus.”

Gunn continued to stare at me like I had just told him that he was the rightful son of Donny Osmond. Taking a moment for some nervous laughter at the obvious and awkward sudden language barrier, I figured third time would be a charm.

“Uh...Think _Resident Evil_ \--just without the guns, puzzles, or availability of a bikini-mode cheat.” Not that the old stodgy business man who ordered the thing would know a good computer hack even if bit him between the toes. Regardless, I still smirked at the wittiness of my analogy. “Alternate endings though, are my forte.”

“So, basically, what you’re telling me is that you’ve been using my client’s money to build the world’s largest _Playstation_?”

My smile faltered a little at the accusation in his tone. Dumbing down my explanation had apparently put my foot in my mouth.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it a _Playstation_.” As I struggled to clarify, the words just started pouring out. “I mean, just the controller alone has an added multifunction trigger and touch screen in place of a D-pad. Then, of course, there is the highly advanced viral and bacterial replication engine, designed by yours truly, that through the dual-core processor can and will simulate any--”

The sudden palm-raised gesture, indicative to stop talking, cut me off.

“Okay. Okay. I get you. It’s not a game, it’s science.”

“Basically,” I replied with a half-shrug and nod. Scratching my hair uneasily, I made note of where I may have let the curiosity get the best of me. “Though I may have gone a little overboard with the mystical integration. And the graphics rendering. The resolution of a single frame alone is mind boggling. You should see the detail I can get on the topographic images.”

In my excitement, I started warming up the system to show it off--the rock formations on the mountain ranges were literally mouthwatering. My hand practically shook with anticipation as they flipped switches in my total moment of pocket-protector glory, when the dumbstruck Gunn finally responded with a long winded sigh that was something short of a whistle.

“Man, you really need to find yourself a hobby that doesn’t involve a joystick.”

Feeling the color rise into my ears, I pointed to the monitor. “This is the simulator under the control settings before the virus is released...”


End file.
